


Burning

by c_morrigan



Category: Nevermoor Series - Jessica Townsend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 5,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29224386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c_morrigan/pseuds/c_morrigan
Summary: Recently reread Wundersmith, and I was thinking about this. Squall had been protecting Morrigan, in a bad way, but still. If he hadn't been using up that Wunder, the Wunder would've used Morrigan up. So, this is about what might've happened if Squall hadn't interfered.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	1. Morrigan/Cadence

Morrigan kept her head down as she scurried past the Charlton Five. They made as if to confront her, but Cadence stepped in between them and said something that Morrigan couldn’t quite catch. She didn’t imagine it was a friendly greeting, though.

She had been paying so much attention to Cadence that she slammed right into Heloise, who had slunk away from her gang to face Morrigan.

Heloise glared down at her. "Why don’t you watch where you're going, dragon girl," she spat. She traced a finger along Morrigan's face with one of her throwing stars. "Is that your knack, then? You breathe fire? I suppose they don’t want you using it, do they? Is that why you were classified?"

Morrigan mumbled something under her breath, trying to push past Heloise, but the older girl pushed her right back.

"I'm not done with you, Knackless." Morrigan resented this. Heloise knew she had a knack now, didn’t she? She mightn't know what that knack actually was, but Heloise knew that Morrigan wasn’t knackless.

"Just leave me alone!" Morrigan moaned, trying not to let the tears spill out of her eyes. She felt the heat rising in her chest, but she squashed it down, not wanting a repeat of what had happened the last time.

"Ohh, is the poor little dragon getting bullied?" Heloise mocked. "Whatever will she do. Here, catch," she said, throwing one of her stars at Morrigan without warning.

Morrigan cried out as the star slashed her skin, a thin line of blood falling from her cheek. Morrigan clutched at it, and something swarmed inside her until Morrigan found that she couldn’t control what was happening anymore.

Heloise's star suddenly grew and began to attack Morrigan by itself, sending her tumbling to the ground. Heloise stepped back in confusion as Morrigan screamed at the onslaught. She felt the pain of a thousand little points attacking her at once.

Cadence came running forward, shouting at Heloise to stop, but Heloise didn’t seem to know what to do. Was it Heloise? Or was this something else? Something more powerful?

Cadence looked on in horror as the… thing attacked Morrigan. The small girl didn’t seem to be able to fight it at all, collapsing to the ground and writhing in pain.  
She shouted at Heloise, putting as much mesmer as she could muster into her voice, telling the older kid to stop hurting Morrigan, but Heloise didn’t do anything.

She was rooted to the spot in terror, and Cadence realised that this wasn’t Heloise. Something else was happening to Morrigan.

It only lasted about a minute, but when Cadence ran forward to aid Morrigan, she was bloodied and battered, slipping away from consciousness.

"Cadence!" came Miss Cheery's cry as she ran forward. "What's happene-" her words dried up as she took in Morrigan, bruised and cut. She recoiled in shock, before calling out for help.

"Tell us what happened, Miss Blackburn," Elder Wong said.

Cadence gulped. "I… the Charlton Five. They… they bully Morrigan. About being- not having a knack. They looked like they were going to gang up on her, so I went to head them off. She's going through so much, I didn’t think she should have to deal with them as well. But…. Heloise mustn't have been with them. I didn’t notice until Morrigan screamed." Cadence paused, the fear of the moment catching up with her. "She was- Heloise attacked her. With her throwing stars. She's done it before."

"But Heloise doesn’t have the power to do… whatever that was, Miss Blackburn," Elder Saga interrupted. "Somebody else must've been involved, surely."

Cadence shrugged. "I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone else. I suppose Heloise might've asked someone to cast a spell." She hesitated. "But.. Heloise did look scared."

"So you don’t think it was her?" Elder Wong asked.

"I don’t think so." Normally, Cadence would have been more than happy to throw Heloise, or any of the Charlton Five, under the bus. But something had attacked Morrigan, and Cadence didn’t want to risk something happening again.

"Alright Miss Blackburn," Elder Quinn sighed. "Thank you for your cooperation. We will… find out what has happened."

Cadence nodded. They hadn't fooled her. She knew that the Elders were just as baffled as anyone else. But if anyone was going to find out, it was them.


	2. Jack

Jack sat by the hospital bed for seven hours. It was the probably longest Morrigan had slept in a long time, he thought ruefully.

When she finally woke up, she was startled by Jack's presence.

"What are you doing here?" Morrigan demanded. "Where am I?" she added as she looked around the room in confusion.

"Do you remember what happened with Heloise, Morrigan?" Jack asked carefully.

She nodded, trembling slightly. "But… what did happen?"

Jack bit his lip and shrugged. "I don’t know. Cadence said the Elders were looking into it."

Morrigan didn’t say anything to that, and Jack wondered what she was thinking.

"You were having a nightmare," Jack stated. He had seen it when he had taken off the patch. To check that, despite what the doctors may have told him, she was okay.

Morrigan looked down. "I don’t want to talk about," she said softly.

Jack gazed at her sympathetically. Sometimes he forgot just how much Morrigan had gone through and was still going through. He'd never really been told the full story, but he knew her old life still upset her. Add that to the stress of the Wundrous Society, being a Wundersmith and whatever was going on with the blackmail of her unit.

He wished there was something he could do to help her, but he just didn’t see how. He couldn’t pretend to understand what she was going through, nor could he help her without properly understanding just what was happening to her.

"Where's Jupiter?" Morrigan asked eagerly.

Jack cringed. "Sorry, Morrigan. He's… off-realm. They haven't been able to reach him."

"Oh."

"Do you want to play poker?" Jack asked, an obvious change of subject. Morrigan didn’t say anything, though, simply nodding and taking part.


	3. Archan

Archan tried not to let Hawthorne catch him staring. It was embarrassing, this crush; because Archan knew he was way out of Hawthorne's league. Hawthorne was a dragon rider, for crying out loud.

Still. Archan knew that logic was never going to change his mind. So he found himself staring as Hawthorne tried to speak Dragontongue, Morrigan and Mahir trying to help him. Archan admired Hawthorne's determination, if not his skill with languages.

Archan noticed that something was up with Morrigan. In all his staring at Hawthorne, he often noticed Morrigan beside him. And today she was more subdued than usual. She wasn’t snorting at Hawthorne's atrocious accent, instead staring into space, preoccupied.

"Something up?" Archan asked, leaning against the rail as they waited for Hometrain. 

Morrigan shrugged. "Just… overworked I guess."

"I don’t mean to be rude, but you look wrecked. Do Wundersmiths sleep?"

Morrigan smirked. "Not this one."

Archan laughed at this. He lost the laugh though, once he saw something over Morrigan's shoulder. "Lambeth? Are you alright?"

Lambeth had been getting agitated, swiping at the air. She screamed as a fireball shot at her, seemingly from nowhere. She must have seen it before it happened. She ducked, but there were more of them, and they just kept coming.

"Get back," Archan cried, but Lambeth was frozen in fear.

Morrigan ran forward as one of the balls was about to hit Lambeth, taking the hit instead. Hawthorne and Mahir had raced over, but there wasn't anything any of them could do. The flames converged on Morrigan, apparently having decided that she was their new target.

Morrigan shrieked in agony as the flames burnt her skin, and Hawthorne raced to grab the fire extinguisher, but Archan wasn't sure how much good that would do. Still, he ran to a tap on the wall, filling up one of the nearby buckets.

Arch threw the water over Morrigan, quashing some of the flames, while Hawthorne used the extinguisher. The flames mostly stopped, and Hawthorne ran forward but cried out when he touched Morrigan's skin.

"She's BURNING," he shouted. He spotted Anah standing back in horror and beckoned her over. "What do we do, Anah?" he asked desperately.

Anah tried to feel Morrigan's temperature, but she also shouted out at the temperature of Morrigan's skin. "I don’t know," she replied. "I- I don’t know how to help her. What happened?"

"What's going on here?" Archan jumped at the sound of Miss Cheery's voice. She lost the humour in voice once she saw Morrigan lying on the concrete, covered in burns. "Morrigan?"

"We have to get her help, Miss," Anah pleaded.

Miss Cheery nodded, racing up to Proudfoot House. Hawthorne stayed next to Morrigan trying to shake her awake without touching her skin.

Morrigan was rushed to the hospital, and the doctors promised Unit 919 that she would be fine, but they'd have to wait for morning to speak to her.


	4. Anah

Anah stared at Morrigan silently, trying to gather her courage. The smaller girl looked absolutely wretched, and Anah knew that she was doing the right thing.

"Morrigan?" she asked tentatively.

Morrigan looked up in surprise. "Hi, Anah. Is something wrong?"

Anah bit her lip, sitting down beside Morrigan for the first time. "I… I want to say some things."

Morrigan raised an eyebrow. "Okaaay."

"I… I think- no, I know- I misjudged you. You saved Lambeth. She would've died if it wasn’t for you. I let all the superstition about Wundersmiths stop me from trying to be kind to you. And it was wrong, Morrigan. I really am so sorry."

Morrigan nodded, giving Anah a small smile. "That's alright, Anah. You're not the only person," she added quietly.

"But… I grew up with the story about the Wundersmith. About how he was the evilest person to ever live. And I know that that's not you," she added hurriedly, seeing the look on Morrigan's face. "But I… I need to get over that fear. And that might take a while. So… can you go easy on me?"

Morrigan grinned. "Yeah, Anah, I can. And thank you for telling me. I know that took guts."

Anah blushed. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "Do-do you need anything?"

"Just to get out of here. Who designed hospital beds?"

Anah giggled. "I should go. I'm not really supposed to be here."

"Anah Kahlo is breaking rules for me?" Morrigan joked. "Wow. Never thought I'd see the day."

"Oh, shush," Anah said, though she was secretly rather pleased.


	5. Jupiter

Jupiter smiled at the sight of Morrigan and Cadence laughing together. He might not have been around, but he knew that Morrigan had people who would look after her, keep an eye on her when he couldn't.

The gathering of Wunder was bigger than ever, yet he could also see that it had diminished significantly. Some of it was leaving Morrigan. He could only hope that this wasn't something to do with Squall.

Jupiter had been off realm a lot recently, trying to keep Squall from using the Gossamer. Their attempts seemed to have been successful so far. But controlling the Gossamer had never been an easy task, and it took constant vigilance and maintaining.

"Jupiter!" Morrigan cried with delight. "You're back!"

Jupiter's face broke out in a broad grin. "And you're in a hospital bed again! Yay!"

Morrigan giggled. "I am most sincerely sorry, and I swear on my bed that I will not be in another accident tomorrow."

"That's because I'm bringing you home now, and you're not leaving for the entire day," Jupiter retorted.

Cadence smirked. "I'll be off then. Mum had me promise I'd be home by six, it's her and Mum's anniversary." She rolled her eyes at this. "They're going to have a soppy-eyed dinner and then I'll have to look at wedding photos for an hour."

Morrigan waved goodbye before turning to Jupiter, who had lost his laugh. She paused at the look on his face. "Jupiter? Are you… alright?"

"Mog, someone's been attacking you," he said in a small voice. "And both times, I haven't been here. You shouldn’t have to deal with that on your own. I should be making sure it doesn’t happen again."

"Do they know… anything? At all?"

Jupiter shook his head. "But you can be certain I'll find out. I swear."

Morrigan smiled at him. "I think I'm ready to go home," she murmured.

Jupiter nodded. "C'mon, then. I reckon Martha may have the kitchen set on fire with the number of muffins she plans on making for you."

As they made their way home, it wasn't lost on Jupiter that Morrigan wasn't telling him something. Several black clouds hung over her head, but he didn’t know how to talk to her about it. Clearly, she didn’t want to.

He knew what one of them was about though. He could see the way it connected to the Wunder. That class, the one about Wundersmith history, had her convinced that being a Wundersmith was a bad thing.

He had been trying to convince her that Onstald was wrong for a long time now, but, understandably, she didn’t believe him. He hadn't any proof whatsoever. But he was intent on getting it and had now recruited Jack to his secret mission.

Jupiter was determined to show Morrigan that she was a good person, but now he would have to decide whether he should concentrate on protecting her from these attacks. Not that he knew the first thing about them. Squall hadn't been able to get into Nevermoor in months, Jupiter had made sure of that. So who was trying to hurt Morrigan?

More worryingly, why? Did they know she was a Wundersmith?

Jupiter's head ached, and he decided to leave his problems for the morning.


	6. Lambeth

Lam stared at Morrigan, wondering what the other girl would say if she knew that the secret the unit was protecting mightn't be hers. That it might be her secret.

What would the others say? Would they hate Lam like they hated Morrigan? Or would it be different, because she wasn’t a Wundersmith? That didn’t seem fair, but then Lam knew better than most that things weren't always fair, especially when it came to knacks, and to the Wundrous Society.

And suddenly, she found herself seeing red that it was so dangerous for anybody to know about her family, about who she really was. She had come to Nevermoor to learn to control her knack, yes, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t talk to people.

It shouldn’t mean she had to isolate herself and let other people take the fall for her. Morrigan had saved her, and that meant that Lam owed her the truth.  
"Lam! I haven't seen you since last week. Are you alright?" Morrigan had spotted her from across the station.

Lam smiled weakly. The events of the previous week hadn't been her favourite memory, but it might've been much worse if it hadn't been for Morrigan. "Yes, thanks."

"Oh, good. I was worried."

Lam nodded, silently cursing herself for being so bad at holding conversations. "Morrigan… there's something I want to talk to you about," she started. "Something important."

"Okay," Morrigan said slowly. "What is it?"

Lam paused, and she almost laughed at herself. She might be an oracle, but thinking ahead was not one of her strong points. Luckily enough for her, the words showed themselves to her.

"My full name is Princess Lamya Bethari Amati Ra. I'm not from Nevermoor I'm from-"

"The Republic? You're a member of the House of Ra?" Morrigan exclaimed.

Lam faltered. "H-how did you know about that?" she asked. "Nobody in Nevermoor knows that much about the Republic, and certainly not about the royal family."

Morrigan bit her lip. "Were you smuggled in?"

"Yes, why-" Lam quickly understood, seeing what Morrigan was about to say. "Oh."

"I was smuggled in too."

Lam nodded. "You're from the Republic." A name came to Lam suddenly, one she remembered hearing at home. "Are you- are you related to Corvus Crow?"

Morrigan looked down and nodded. "He was my father," she replied quietly.

"But… his daughter was… were you on the cursed child register, Morrigan?"

"What's a cursed child register?" Lam jumped at Arch's voice. "What's going on?"

Morrigan looked from Lam to Arch and back to Lam again, clearly uncertain of what to say. "I was," she said softly. "I was born on Eventide."

Lam shook her head. "But you're _alive_! How is that possible? Cursed children _die_!"

Morrigan nodded, while Arch continued to look on in confusion. "The curse was never real. It was made up, to kill the children who were born on Eventide. Jupiter saved me from it."

Lam was horrified at this. "S-so the whole curse, it was all made up? They told little children they were going to die when they could stop it?"

" _What are you two talking about_?" Arch interrupted, clearly agitated at the words Morrigan and Lam were throwing around.

Morrigan was still unsure of how much she should say, so Lam explained it to Arch. And the rest of Unit 919 listened in too. Within ten minutes, they knew the truth. That Lam was a princess, and that it might be her secret that the unit was protecting.

"But what's this about curses?" Francis squeaked. "Are we in more danger?"

Morrigan shook her head. "The curse was… an excuse. To kill Wundersmiths," she added.

"They hate Wundersmiths that much in the Republic?" Thaddea was shocked. "They kill _children_?"

Morrigan shook her head. "They don’t even know about Wundersmiths," she hesitated, deliberating whether or not to tell them something. "Except for Ezra Squall. He lives in the Republic."

There were six gasps at this name, but Lam didn’t understand why. "What's wrong with Ezra Squall? He's just in charge of Wunder."

"No," Morrigan explained. "He's a Wundersmith. The Wundersmith. The one from the Courage Square massacre."

"He's alive?" Anah asked.

Morrigan nodded. "And he kills all the children who might become Wundersmiths so that he can keep all the Wunder to himself."

"And that was meant to happen to you?" Mahir asked.

Morrigan paused. "Sort of. It's complicated."

Lam chewed her lip. She had never imagined that Morrigan and she might have something so huge in common. She hugged the other girl, trying not to think about what she must have gone through as a child, everyone blaming her for every little mishap. 

"So we have two secrets in this unit, and we don’t know which one the blackmailers know about?" Cadence said.

"We're going to be known as the Secret Unit!" crowed Hawthorne. "We should get CAPES!"

Everyone giggled at this, and Lam found herself thinking that maybe, they'd be just fine.


	7. Onstald

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not my favourite, but i wanted to do something from his point of view, because he fascinates me as a character

The Wundersmith stared at the desk, clearly about to collapse from exhaustion. She didn’t seem to have slept in two weeks, and it was taking its toll on her. Against his better wishes, Onstald found himself wondering whether he should send her to the nurse.

He shook his head, remembering that she was a Wundersmith, and called up to her, "Now… open your book… to page three hundred… and fifty. You have ten…. minutes to revise."

The girl nodded- no, the Wundersmith nodded, staring at his book miserably. He had never contemplated before just how horrible a book could make people feel. It gave him an odd sense of power, though he would never admit that anywhere but in his own head.

As he turned around, something happened behind him. A sudden heat rose up in the centre of the room, and Morrigan cried out to him.

Onstald put a pause on time, turning around calmly in his seat only to jump at the sight of the fire. The flames raged from his book, and he was about to reprimand the girl for property damage when he saw the look of terror on her face as fires popped up all around her, consuming her.

He lost his hold on time, tumbling to the ground in his race to the door.

As he made it to the door coughing and panting, teachers and scholars alike had come racing down the corridor at the sound of the fire alarm.

"Professor Onstald!" Elder Wong cried out in surprise. "Are you alright? What's happened?"

"The girl-" he coughed, pointing towards the classroom. "Still there."

"Morrigan Crow?" Elder Wong asked carefully.

"Who else?" Onstald demanded.

Elder Wong nodded. "Of course. We'll get her out. Jim, take Professor Onstald to the nurse's office. If you see one of my fellow Elders or the Scholar Mistress, you send them this way, understand? Marina Cheery, also."


	8. Hawthorne

Hawthorne laughed as Arch produced a list of where to return things, after stealing a whole bunch of increasingly difficult-to-find objects on a dare.

"How on earth did you get Dame Chanda's prized jewels?" he demanded. "Morrigan is going to have her socks knocked off." At the sight of Arch's raised eyebrow, he retorted, "Hey, I do know words. Or at least I know Mahir."

Arch giggled as Hawthorne started making ridiculous faces at him. Hawthorne felt a buzzing in his stomach at having made Arch laugh. He had told Morrigan about his crush on Arch and Morrigan had been thoroughly unsurprised, saying it was obvious to everyone except Arch. Since then, he had wondered whether telling Arch that he liked him would be a good idea.

There was always time, though. And if Arch didn’t like him, Hawthorne would prefer not to find out just yet. He was glad to have a friend for the time being.

Mildmay rushed into the classroom, sheets spilling out of his folder. "So sorry, children, I was delayed and I know I said I'd-" he paused. "Where's Miss Crow?" Hawthorne looked around the room. Morrigan was nowhere to be seen. He glanced at Cadence, but she just shrugged at him, making a how am I supposed to know gesture. Morrigan was always the first to arrive for their Decoding Nevermoor class, as having only one other class made it hard to get delayed.

"I think she had an exam today, sir," Mahir called out. "For her Wun- with Professor Onstald."

Mildmay pursed his lips. "Must be a good lesson, if she's staying late. Alright then, I suppose we'll just have to get started without her. You will of course be having your own exam later this week and I do expect all of-"

"Get ready!" Lam cried out. "We have to go!"

"What?" Hawthorne spun around. "What did you see? Is someth-" His questions were drowned out by the fire alarm.

The unit looked at one another in confusion. A fire in Wunsoc? It was unheard of. The Wundrous Society shouldn't have had any issues with something as everyday as fire.

"Come on then, you lot," Mildmay shouted, having got over his initial surprise at the blaring sounds.

"Calm down, Lambeth. We'll be fine. Anah, no running this is a fire. Please, children be calm."

Hawthorne fell into step beside Cadence. "Where do you think Morrigan is?" he hissed. "She'd never stay behind in that class."

Cadence shrugged. "I don’t know, Hawthorne." She tried to mask her worry, but Hawthorne could see straight through her by now. Cadence thought her mask was good, but she hadn't had enough experience with people paying attention to her to actually hide her feelings well.

Twenty minutes later, Unit 919 was lined up at their designated fire safety point. That is, Unit 919 minus Morrigan. Hawthorne's worry had escalated to agitation, and he could tell that the rest of the unit was on edge too. Where was she?

Miss Cheery came running forward, taking a quick headcount of the unit. "Right, so, we're all here and-"

"Miss, Morrigan isn't here," Anah called out in confusion.

Miss Cheery stopped. "I- I know Anah. I know."

"Where is she?" Cadence demanded.

Miss Cheery looked around at their faces, clearly trying to decide what to tell them. "I am so sorry, kids. Morrigan… Look, something's happened and Morrigan- she-"

"NO!" Lam cried out. "NO! No, no, no, please Miss, no!"

What had Lam seen this time? What had happened to Morrigan?

"Lam, please, please just calm down. I- I have to tell you." Miss Cheery took a deep breath. "There was an accident. Morrigan… Morrigan didn’t make it."

Everything seemed to slow down. Hawthorne waited for a punchline, but nothing came.

"LIAR!" Cadence roared. "Morrigan can't- she can't-" Cadence's anger evaporated as quickly as it had begun. She fell to her knees and sobbed, and Hawthorne knelt down next to her, and they held each other.

Hawthorne knew, in that moment, that nothing would ever be the same again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i am only now getting around to the whole point of this story what about it


	9. Miss Cheery

Marina hurried out of the room, unable to be in the same space as that _body_. It wasn’t supposed to be a body, it was supposed to be Morrigan Crow, and she was supposed to have looked after Morrigan and now Morrigan was _dead_.

She had brought the unit to the hospital room, trying to convince Anah that there was nothing to be done for Morrigan. She had regretted it almost immediately, as Anah tried to resuscitate Morrigan, while Francis dissolved into tears and Cadence began to shout at Morrigan again.

It had been a long time since a Society member had died inside Proudfoot House, and the Elders were trying to deliver the news to the scholars now. Good luck to them. They'd have to explain why Morrigan had been in that classroom on her own, and Marina knew that that wasn’t going to go down well.

Murgatroyd believed she understood what had happened. She said that Morrigan hadn't learned what she called the Wretched Arts, so Wunder had eaten her up from the inside out. Marina wasn't sure what she thought of that, but she knew that Murgatroyd had been saying that Morrigan should learn the Wretched Arts from the beginning, but the Elders had been too afraid of a _little girl_ , so they tried to squash her power down. And now Morrigan was dead.

"Marina!" called out a familiar voice. She turned around only to be greeted by the one person she did _not_ want to see. One look at his huge smile and she knew that he didn’t know.

"Captain North," she greeted weakly. "What are you doing here? D-did someone call you?"

He looked down sheepishly. "I'm here to break Mog out," he stage-whispered. "Don't let Dearborn know, alright?"

Marina felt her heart fail a little. "Captain North, I really didn’t want-"

"No need for Captain North, I don’t think," he interrupted, clearly not picking up on her tone. "What are titles amongst friends, eh? I'm Jupiter, Marina, I've told you before."

Would he still think of her as a friend when he learned how she had failed? "Jupiter, there really is something-"

"Oh, Marina, I have to tell you about this." Jupiter interrupted her again, and usually, Marina would've been annoyed at him, but all her energy to be annoyed was gone. "You know how Mog's teacher, Professor Onstald, has been telling her all about how horrible Wundersmiths are and so on, being a dreadful prat? I've - well, Jack and I- found proof that he's wrong. Proof!" Jupiter laughed.

"Oh, Jupiter," Marina started. "That is wonderful, but I-" she faltered, and the tears came back again. Funny, she'd thought she'd run out of water by this stage.

"Marina?" Jupiter asked in alarm. "Are you alright?" He handed her a handkerchief, which she refused, knowing he'd need it himself in a moment. "Has something happened?"

Marina stared at him. How were you supposed to deliver this kind of information? All those lessons in distraction, in containment, and never in practical skills, like how to ruin somebody's life without drowning them in your own tears first. "It's Morrigan," she choked out.

Jupiter's smile evaporated. "What's happened? Is she alright? Where is she? Can I see her? She's still here, right?"

Marina shook her head. "I'm so sorry, Jupiter."

Needless to say, he didn’t take the news well.


	10. Fenestra

Jupiter stared into the fire, clearly still in shock. Fenestra couldn’t blame him for that. She had never been good with losing, and losing people was the worst kind of loss.

"I should've done something," Jupiter said hoarsely. "I could see the Wunder. I knew there was a lot of it, and if I had actually stopped to think for once in my life, I would've realised there was too much of it. It killed her, Fen. And I could've stopped it."

Fenestra wasn’t what to say to that. Her usual sarcastic comments had dried up, leaving her with a big Morrigan-shaped hole. "Jove, you didn’t know what would happen. Nobody did."

"Squall would've," Jupiter replied bitterly. "But I kept him out. I kept him out of the Gossamer because I thought he was a threat to her, but he was probably the only person who could help her."

Fenestra stalked over to sit next to him, letting him lean against her shoulder for once. "We all made mistakes, Jupiter. I should've made more of an effort when I realised how miserable she was. There are no instructions for life, so we all just have to do our best."

Jupiter just shook his head and continued shaking his head. "Someone's going to have to tell Jack. I should've sent a message today. But I didn’t."

Fenestra felt all the anger boiling within her, and decided that mourning was not something she wanted to do. Not right now. She was too angry to be sad.

"Where are you going?" Jupiter asked as Fenestra stalked out of the room.

"Out," she said shortly.

She didn’t know where she was going but wasn’t overly surprised when her anger brought her straight to Morrigan's room. She had learned a long time ago that anger tended to lead you right where you needed to be when you didn’t want to be there.

Room 85 seemed subdued, and if she hadn't known any better, Fenestra might've thought that it was in mourning. With the black curtains and the black sheets and the black wall and the now black octopus chair, the entire décor seemed to mourn. In reality, though, that had just been Morrigan's style.

At the sight of her empty umbrella stand, it hit Fenestra. Morrigan was gone. And she wasn’t coming back. Because that was what happened when somebody died. They left and never returned. And Fenestra had always hated and never had been good at accepting it.

So she checked Morrigan's other door. It was gone. Suppose that's what happens when you die. No place for dead people in WunSoc.

She headed out to the roof, staring at the stars until Frank interrupted her.

"It's true then?" he called out to her.

"How'd you figure that?" Fenestra called back.

"You're not attacking me. And you're looking at the stars. You always look up there when bad things happen. And this is the worst thing."

She did always look to the stars. When she was younger, she'd imagined that there were good things in the stars. She mightn't believe that anymore, but old habits die hard.

"Do you think Jove will be alright?" Frank asked, joining her on the edge of the building, swinging his legs over the side.

"Not for a long time," Fenestra replied. "None of us will be."

Frank gazed out gloomily at the people going about their business on the streets. "They don’t know," he said softly. "They don’t know what they've lost. They don’t know that one of the most innocent of children is dead. They'll never know, most likely."

"Will you let me help with the funeral?" Fenestra interrupted.

"Why do you assume I'll be doing that?" Fenestra gave him a pointed look, and he sighed. "Alright then. I have a good idea of what to do anyway. She'll be cremated."

"Why's that?"

"It's something she told me once. Something to do with her old home, and her father. She never went into the details."

Fenestra nodded, and the pair did not speak for the rest of the night.


End file.
